The present invention relates to an optical interconnect device, information processing device and data transmission method.
The performance of information processing devices such as computers has improved considerably. For example, communication speeds have increased, power consumption has fallen, and the transmission of information has become more reliable. However, while the performance of devices such as transistors is reaching it limit, device-to-device connection techniques (e.g., interconnect techniques) have become a key to further improvements in the performance of information processing devices. Methods in which wiring is provided two-dimensionally require a large number of complicated wiring patterns which are not conducive to improving transmission speeds.
The free-space optical interconnect technique has been proposed for propagating light through free space to transmit information. In the optical interconnect technique, information is transmitted via light using light-emitting elements (e.g., lasers) as electric-to-optic conversion devices, and light-receiving elements (e.g., photo detectors) as optic-to-electric conversion devices. A mirror is provided in the optical transmission path to switch the combination of light-emitting elements and light-receiving elements, and reconfigure the optical transmission path.
Patent Document 1 describes an optical interconnection system including a light-emitting element array, a light-receiving element array, an optical element array for adding an optical effect to light traveling from the light-emitting element array to the light-receiving element array, and a positioning mechanism connected to two-dimensional array light-receiving elements, two-dimensional array light-receiving elements or a microlens array. In the positioning mechanism, a control mechanism automatically controls the operation of a drive mechanism and a securing mechanism on the basis of information indicating the adjustment position according to an analysis of signal strength obtained from a light-receiving element.
Patent Literature 2 describes an optical module in which light from each light-emitting element in a plurality of rows incident on the first lens surface of a first lens member in a plurality of rows is totally reflected on a first inclined surface, the reflected light is spectrally dispersed by reflection/transmission layers towards a third inclined surface and a third lens surface in a plurality of rows, the light from the light-emitting elements in each transmissive row on the third inclined surface side is emitted towards the end surface of a light transmitting body by the second lens surface in a plurality of rows, and the monitor light from each light-emitting element in each reflective row on the third inclined surface side is emitted towards the light-receiving elements in a plurality of rows by a third lens surface in each row.
Patent Literature 3 describes a free-space optical interconnect device including: a first lens for collimating a light beam from a light source; a first steering element for steering the light beam from the first lens towards a predetermined location on a curved reflecting surface; a second steering element for steering the light beam reflected from the curved reflecting surface so as to be perpendicular to a detector; and a second lens for collecting the light beam on the detector.
Non-patent Literature 1 describes scaling and system partitioning configurations for clustered optical relays in chip-to-chip and board-to-board free-space optical interconnects, and the numerical values and results of theoretical analysis used to determine interconnect distances suitable for micro lens or macro lens systems.